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The Week in Germany: Culture November 9, 2007 TWIG Turntable – Weekly German Culture Tips
From music downloads to streaming radio to online booksellers and DVD rental by mail, it has never been easier to take in German culture from abroad than it is today. Starting this week, TWIG will provide a jumping off point for voyages of cultural discovery in the weekly “Turntable” column. Each week, we will let you know what is on our turntable, metaphorically speaking – something worth listening too, reading, or watching from the land of ideas that is also available right here in the USA. Books/Films: Mondscheintarif, by Ildiko von Kürthy
Fans of Bridget Jones, who are legion across the globe, will not want to pass up the opportunity to read or watch Mondscheintarif (Moonlight Tariff), Germany's answer to the "chick lit" phenomenon.
Set in Hamburg and written by a witty 30-something former Stern news and lifestyle magazine journalist named Ildikó von Kürthy, Mondscheintarif (1999) follows the romantic ups and downs of single photographer Cora Hübsch, a vivacious 34-year-old who loves life, fine dining, works out and is still hoping to meet "Mr. Right" while maintaining the right mix of humor and sarcasm about her seemingly perpetual singledom situation. Perhaps not unintentionally, her last name literally means "beautiful". Enter Dr. Daniel Hoffman, an attractive young doctor whose practice she just happens to visit in an embarrassing scene and who hence all the more surprisingly asks her out on a date. A divine night of passion however turns into a tortuously long period of waiting for THE call that never seems to come, driving our hapless heroine half mad - until she decides to take matters into her own hands, despite the sage advice of her glamorous best friend. In the end, inevitably, it seems that a hilarious misunderstaning clears up much of the mystery that was keeping Mr. Right just out of reach ...
This particular TWIG editor read this book in one or two sittings a few years ago when it leapt from the IKEA Billy bookshelf of a friend's flat in Vienna. She was happy to get the book back because it was a cherished favorite among her "light literature" collection. A key line early on in this fun and at times even laugh-out-loud read à la Bridget Jones comes when Cora worries about various body parts and Problemzonen (problem zones) of the female physique when she concludes by saying: "Freundinnen, die größte Problemzone der Frau heißt Mann." (Girlfriends, the biggest problem zone of woman is called 'man'.) Kürthy's debut novel, the book was a major bestseller in the German-speaking world, spawned an enchanting 2001 big-screen romantic comedy by the same name and a play that recently premiered at Berlin's Komödie am Kurfürstendamm theater. Other books by the silver-penned Ildikó von Kürthy include Herzsprung (2001), Freizeichen (2003), Blaue Wunder (2005) and Höhenrausch (2006). All five of her bestselling novels feature contemporary young women who deal with their own shortcomings vis-à-vis the opposite sex with irony and humor. Von Kürthy, who was born in 1968 and grew up in Aachen, however
herself illustrates that at some stage things can actually work out in
the romance department: She lives in Hamburg with husband Sven Michaelsen,
a Stern magazine editor, and the couple have a son, Anton, who
was born in 2006. Links: |
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